Will Google take on hotel distribution?

It’s enough to strike fear in the hearts of OTAs worldwide—if Google enters the hotel booking game, what will the resulting merchant landscape look like? Don’t worry about it too much because the scenario is not likely, according to industry experts.

Despite buzz surrounding Google’s pending acquisition of ITA Software, there are no signs that Google plans to become a hotel room retailer, according to industry participants. In fact, many think Google’s increased interest in travel-related search results could be a benefit, with an important exception being the online travel agencies.

To be clear, ITA processes flight information so the acquisition by Google in itself does not affect hotels directly. What is likely to happen, however, is OTAs will respond to the changes and that will in some way affect hotels, according to Tim Unwin, senior VP, product management for Pegasus Solutions.

Henry Harteveldt, Forrester Research

Google will likely take the combined capabilities of ITA and its existing platforms to the hotel search and discovery process, according to Henry Harteveldt, VP & principal analyst, Airline & Travel Research, Forrester Research.

“Google wants to take advantage of ITA’s capabilities to understand (consumer search) intent,” he said.

For some location searches, Google already is presenting Google Maps with an augmented display of specific hotel locations, rates and sometimes availability, Unwin said. “Whilst that is still an evolving service, there is a potential for that to become a customer source for shopping and booking,” he said. “But from my perspective, Google is important in search rather than the ultimate transaction.”

Google is being careful how they display hotel information, according to Chris Anderson, assistant professor at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

“Google is very conscious how they list those prices and where they put them,” he said. “They don’t want those consumers to go to that map and use that as their search base because that will reduce their revenue stream from general ads and sponsors links.”

The FairSearch movement
There is a movement afoot, called FairSearch.org, led by the big OTAs and other companies with interest in online search competition and transparency. Members include Microsoft; Expedia and its brands HotWire and TripAdvisor; Level.com (France); Farelogix; meta-search site KAYAK and its brand SideStep; vertical search engine Foundem; and Sabre Holdings and its brand Travelocity.

Google declined to comment on its work in the travel industry, except to deny the existence of “Google Travel.” Its corporate web pages refer to advertising and data opportunities in the travel space, rather than any consumer platforms.

Max Starkov believes the controversy surrounding the Google-ITA deal is fueled by the OTAs.

“(The negative press is) a scare tactic by the OTAs to scare the bejesus out of everybody that Google will be monopolizing travel,” Starkov said. “Google is not in the business of transactions. They’re in the business of presenting information in the most intelligent way. … I think it’s an intentional distraction to try to the scare the industry that there’s a bigger enemy than us. It’s Google.”

Google will not turn themselves into a travel agency, the chief eBusiness strategist with Hospitality eBusiness Strategies said. They will present rates and from there people will go to the respective booking agents.

Starkov’s predictions for how Google could proceed with monetization of its capabilities:
• They can take a referral fee or cut of the booking.
• They can charge more on search ad revenue (hotel companies pay more to show up more prominently in search results).
• They can charge a fee just to have the website listed, or charge for every individual booking made through their search results. “Google will probably say if we bring you a booking, we should somehow be compensated for that,” he said.
• They could license ITA software to hotel companies as it has airlines and travel agencies.

What if Google did decide to enter the hotel transaction space?

“It’s more difficult to envisage a single acquisition in the hotel space having a similar effect like what is likely to happen in airlines,” Unwin said. “There are still pieces of that picture that are evolving (for airlines).”

Google realizes it needs to talk to and work with the hotel chains and intermediaries, he said.

“They want to open up channels to allow access to the data they need to flow through to them,” Unwin said. “The one key thing is Google needs access to up-to-date and accurate information.”

They want to work with anyone who can contribute to the presentation of accurate information on inventory, but they don’t necessarily need to own anyone to get it, he added.